People v. Williams

STURTEVANT, J.

The defendant and two others, George Woodbur and Lester Leuty, were charged in an information filed by the district attorney with having committed robbery. All of the defendants pleaded not guilty. The trial commenced on June 25, 1936. Before that date the defendants George Woodbur and Lester Leuty withdrew their pleas of not guilty and entered a plea of guilty. The defendant Louis Williams only went to trial. The jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged in the information and determined the degree to be first degree. The defendant made a motion for a new trial and a motion in arrest of judgment. Both motions were denied. He was sentenced to state prison and thereupon he appealed from the order denying his motion for a new trial, from the order denying his motion in arrest of judgment, and from the final judgment.

He claims he did not have a fair trial and specifies the particulars.

On March 17, 1936, Dr. Lew E. Wallace, a dentist, was held up by two young men while he was walking near his home on Monterey Boulevard in San Francisco. The act occurred at about 9:30 P. M. The hold-up occurred in the middle of the block where the two men stepped out from behind some shrubbery. One man held a gun and told him to get into the shrubbery, which he did, and there he was searched and robbed by the two men. One of them admonished the doctor to keep quiet or he would bat the doctor in the jaw. While the hold-up was taking place a third man in an automobile which was parked near by also kept the doctor covered with a gun. From the doctor was taken a gold watch, a gold chain, a gold knife, an elk’s tooth, a wallet containing currency, a card case containing lodge receipts, a Knight Templar badge, a pen flash light, a fountain pen, a gold pencil, and about $25 or $30.

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After taking these things from the doctor the men told him to get along, whereupon he proceeded to his home. At the trial the doctor testified that a gun shown to him resembled the gun that had been used by one of the men who held him up, and that another gun shown to him resembled the gun used by the man in the automobile. He also identified a watch shown to him as his watch; also a chain, a Knight Templar badge, a pen knife, a gold pencil, and a pen flash light. The chain was given to him immediately prior to holding the preliminary hearing. It was given to him by Mr. Reagh. The doctor also testified that a picture of a Chevrolet ear shown to him represented a car that was similar to the one at the scene of the hold-up. He further testified that he could not identify the person who remained in the automobile and held a gun on him but he did identify the two men who stood on the ground and held him up as being Leuty and Woodbur. Dr. Wallace’s nephew identified the pen flash light as resembling one he had given to his uncle. Robert Thompson, a former employer of the defendant, identified the gun which Dr. Wallace had testified resembled the one held by the man in the automobile as being a gun which he had sold to the defendant about the middle of February, 1936. Corporal Meyer testified he was in a pawn shop when George Wood-bur, one of the codefendants, tried to pawn a Knight Templar badge and a gold pen knife. He identified both of those articles when shown to him in the courtroom. On the same day that George Woodbur attempted to pawn said articles the corporal arrested this defendant and took from his possession a small pen flash light. At that time the defendant stated he had bought the flash light at the Levin store at Oak and Van Ness Avenue for twenty cents. After arresting the defendant he was taken to the police station and was accused of using the Chevrolet ear in the robbery, but the defendant denied using it. He stated it was possible somebody could have driven the car and when asked the name of such person he gave the name of a dead man. Mr. Gray, the sales manager of Levin’s store, testified his store never carried such an article as the pen flash light. Inspector Hanson testified that on going to Leuty’s home he found both guns and the -watch. Lester Leuty, one of the codefendants, took the stand and related how he and